Eternity's in Your Eyes
by howlsatthemoon
Summary: He closes his eyes and lines are crossed everywhere, bridges burned and walls broken. / Lily and Teddy, through the years and numbers that fade away.


_Disclaimer: I don't own anythanggg._

Here it is! My _real_ comeback. I hope Lily and Teddy welcome me back home with open arms!

-;-

Eternity's in Your Eyes (Spikes & Broken Glass)  
-Lily and Teddy through the years and numbers that fade away.

_so let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink  
put you to bed when you've had too much to drink  
__I could be the man who grows old with you_

(Adam Sandler)

**( **lily & teddy **)**

_zero and eleven_

She enters the world in a whirlwind of screaming and sobbing and hearts racing and hand-holding and the tiniest patch of peachy red fuzz on the top of her purple head as she was whisked away by Healers with white gloves and bright wands.

Ginny, sweaty and weary, beckons for him and squeezes his stiff fingers, smiling. "Thank you, Teddy, for staying with me," she says, exhausted. Harry had been off on an Auror mission when her water had broke and, Teddy being either the luckiest or unluckiest boy on the face of the Earth, had been the only one home with her that day. "Harry will be so proud of you."

"Thanks, Ginny," he replies, grinning toothily and wiping a bit of cold sweat from his brow. (Pregnant women always scared the crap out of him, what with their humongous stomachs and precarious appearances. What if they fell on you?)

A Healer comes back in minutes with a still-screeching baby in his arms. "Have you thought of a name for her yet, Mrs. Potter?" he asks politely as he places the infant in her pale hands, helping her to support the baby's body properly.

"Lily," declares Ginny proudly, "Lily Luna Potter. What do you think, Teddy?"

Teddy, glad to be included, nods furiously and blushes. "It's brilliant," he splutters.

"Would you like to hold him?" the Healer asks kindly, his old face wise.

Silent, Teddy's expression is solemn the entire time as he holds out his hand to cradle Lily Luna in his skinny, shaking eleven-year-old arms, still unaware of what the future would behold for the two of them.

"Lily," he breathes as the baby opens its eyes and blinks up at him curiously, bold green shining back at him.

(The world is spinning faster than ever.)

_four months and eleven_

It's Christmastime and Lily, already stumbling around on all fours and giggling and cooing at everybody, is the life of the party to everyone - save for Victoire, but Vic's never satisfied unless she's the center of attention, anyway. He's home for the holidays and it's perfection, with his pseudo-family surrounding him and James and Al looking up to him and Lily always gripping his finger with a sticky hand and Harry looking at him like a son and everyone there knowing his name.

And then, in the middle of Christmas dinner, just as he's cutting into his slice of turkey, Lily, in her enchanted high chair, throws down her food, looks straight at him and begins to wail.

Instantly, Harry and Ginny stand simultaneously and attempt to calm her but she's uncontrollable, reaching out her stubby arms towards Teddy and throwing her head back, yelling. The kids cover their ears and Victoire grumbles something to her younger sister and Teddy is standing up by his food, unsure of why he's so worried when it's probably just nothing.

And then Harry glances at him with tired eyes and requests curiously, "Teddy, come here, won't you?"

Face quizzical, Teddy walks over with pale yellow hair and stands still next to baby Lily. In a millisecond, her mouth closes and the tears dry and she stops her making a scene, calming down and looking up at him, smiling and making baby noises.

"She adores you, Teddy!" Ginny laughs loudly, running a hand through her long, plaited auburn hair.

Suddenly, Lily opens her mouth and, just as the entire room turns silent, utters very slowly, "Twebby."

Teddy frowns and squints at her, like it'll make everything clearer. "Uh, what did you say, Lils?" he asks, feeling a bit dumb talking to the tiny girl. Everyone's eyes are stabbing into his back.

She giggles and swats at his face. "Tebby!"

"Oh my God," Ginny says happily as she realises what's happened. "Harry, quick, get the camera and the baby book!"

"Teddy! Teddy! Teddy!" Lily chants excitedly as everyone begins to crowd around her and Teddy, the baby shouting his name over and over, Harry rushing into the bedroom, not thinking enough to simply summon everything with the wand in his back pocket.

Ginny watches her god-son and daughter, both smiling widely and staring at each other. "I think you've got it wrong, Gin," Hermione notes as she stands next to her sister-in-law, rolling her eyes as Ron tries to make Lily say his name next. "I think _Teddy_ adores _Lily_."

"They're perfect together, don't you think?" Ginny sighs softly, looking at the two of them. "They'll be best mates. And someday… who knows?"

Hermione gives her a look and laughs out loud. "_I _think you've been hanging around Luna too much."

_three and fourteen_

He's at Harry and Ginny's (because, yeah, he practically lives there) and Victoire's being _Victoire_ and trying to get him to spend every minute of his day there with her while Lily pouts and crosses her arms and tries to get him to play princess in the tower with her. And, okay, he's a _teenage _boy for Godric's sakes, so for just the teensiest half an hour he picks flirting with Vic over playing with his toddler best friend (pathetic, he knows) but that doesn't make the terrified, hollow feeling in his stomach okay when they realize none of them have got any idea where she's gone.

"Where's Lily?" Harry roars loudly, making Albus cry. "Sorry, Al, sorry. Ginny is going to _murder_ us, _all _of us, if she finds out we lost our only daughter the first girls' day she's in years! She'll never trust me again!"

Teddy swallows and blinks back tears, the pansy feeling he gets sitting in the back of his throat as guilt floods in. "I - I haven't seen her since lunchtime," he admits, voice cracking. "Maybe James…?"

James shakes his head, sucking on a popsicle and getting the red juice all over his face. "'Aven't seen Willy in ages," he mumbles, bits of ice flying everywhere, "she went outshide."

Harry pauses for a second and closes his eyes, taking in the threat of both losing his youngest child and his own life once Ginny comes home. When he opens his eyes, he discovers Teddy's already long gone out the door, Vic looking upset with her arms crossed over her chest.

"She's probably just out there playing," she complains, sighing. "Go on and look for her, Uncle Harry, I'll stay here with Jamesie and Allie."

In the end, she's simply curled up and asleep on the porch swing, traces of tears down her cheeks. Harry, red-faced and panting, brings out a blanket and covers her in it and Teddy waits by her side, Victoire having flooed back to Shell Cottage in frustration. After about an hour Lily wakes up wildly, arms flailing and nearly hitting poor Teddy in the head.

"Nearly gave me a heart attack, Lils," he confesses, his hair bright blue, when she calms down. "I thought I'd lost you forever."

Three-year-old Lily juts out her lower lip and looks up at him with wide, doe-like green eyes. "'Snot like you'd care," she grumbles, "you like _Victoire _better than me, anyway." The way such a young Lily says the name with so much menace and venom and spite frightens him, even back then.

"I like Vic, yeah," Teddy says, "but I _love_ you."

Immediately, her small, chubby face brightens and Lily grabs onto him, pulling herself onto his lap and peering into his face. His hair changes to match her indigo t-shirt. "_Really, _Teddy? Pinky promise?" Teddy stops for a second, smiling at her, and then raises his hand to meet her tiny one, interlocking their pinkies and squeezing. "I wuv you too, Teddy!"

At dinner that night, Lily announces to everyone that Teddy loves her. When Ginny asks how she found out, Lily goes on and on about her adventure and how Daddy and Teddy thought they'd lost her forever. Harry has a scar from a certain fabulous Bat Bogey Hex on the right side of his abdomen. Needless to say, Ginny never has a girls' day again.

_six and seventeen_

"Merlin, Lily, why won't you talk to me?" Teddy whines at King's Cross as carts and first years and classmates pass the two of them, one towering overt the other, while the rest of the family fuss over Molly and Lucy's nervous first year jitters.

Lily crosses her arms and sends him a piercing glare, already terrifying at six years old. Teddy tickles her and she giggles for a second before swatting at him and pulling away. Giving in, she growls, "You're going off to Hogwarts and then you'll leave and I'll never see you again. And you'll marry Victoire and leave and never come back and have kids and you won't remember my name or care about me anymore. I hate you!"

Teddy's face falls as he squats down to meet her height. "Lils, first of all, I could never forget you. You're my Lily-pad." Lily's pink lips curve slightly before she looks away. "Second of all, I doubt I'll marry Vic at seventeen, and 'snot like I've got a house or anywhere to live, besides Gram's, so I'll definitely be at your house for ages, still; you'll get sick of me. And third, Lils, even if you hate me with every bit of hate in your whole body, I will always love you."

A single tear slides down Lily's cheek as she stares at him for a long, full second before throwing her arms around him and crying into his shoulder. "I don't want you to leave," she murmurs, her voice muffled. "Teddy, I'll miss you, I always miss you."

His throat is dry and weak all of a sudden as he hugs her to his chest tightly, closing his eyes. "I'll be back for Christmas holidays and soon it'll be summer before you know it and I'll never leave for Hogwarts again," he insists, never having wanted to leave the school he loved so badly before. "I'll always come back, Lils, you remember that. Teddy always comes back."

"Love you, Teddy," she sniffles as she pulls away. Teddy wipes away the traces of tears with a calloused thumb.

"Love you too, Lily," he sighs as he gives her one last hug and squeezing her fingers before taking his things and walking onto the Hogwarts Express for the last time.

_eight and nineteen_

Victoire rolls her eyes at Teddy before leaning down and patting Lily on the head. "Lily, darling, won't you just leave me and Teddy alone for _one teensy second_? Please, love? I promise, I'll give him back to you right away."

Lily gives her a determined look and says calmly, "_One_. There. It's been one teensy second. I'd like my Teddy back, now."

Teddy stifles a laugh. Vic sends him a glare. "You're clever," she grumbles, defeated. "Teddy, we're going to talk later. Don't think _she _can rescue you from whatever stupid distress you're in." Victoire apparates away with a pop and leaves Lily and Teddy alone in Harry and Ginny's house.

"I hate her," Lily decides firmly, glaring into the empty air Victoire had vanished into. "She's _horrid_, Teddy. What's that word James says all the time? She's a bith? An itch?"

"James's got a language problem. Don't listen to what he says. And Vic's not that bad," Teddy corrects quickly, and then pats the seat next to him on the sofa. "Come on and sit with me, Lils. Vic's gone and we've got the whole place to ourselves."

"Are you going to marry her, Teddy?" Lily sighs in a very small voice as she plops onto the leather sofa, leaning her head against his shoulder.

The metamorphagus coughs and looks up at the ceiling, his hair turning violent orange. "I don't know yet," he says. "Victoire is… high maintenance. She changes what she wants a lot. I guess I'll probably just end up going along with whatever she comes up with."

Lily frowns. "Don't marry her," she pleads all of a sudden, making Teddy pause and look at her. "Victoire Lupin sounds _horrible_."

Teddy chuckles. "Oh, really? And what sounds good, then, Lily-pad? Hm?"

For a second, the little girl blushes pink and stares at the floor. And then she gazes up at him intently and says, "Lily Luna Lupin. _I _think it sounds _gorgeous_."

Hysterically, Teddy laughs and Lily joins in, unknowing. "Sure, Lils. I'll marry you as soon as you turn seventeen, hon."

"Seriously, Ted?" Lily asks, smiling widely and giggling. "It's gonna be so awesome! Lily Lupin and Teddy Potter!"

Teddy laughs again. "It doesn't quite go like that, Lily. But yeah. We'll get married and buy a flat and have a pet dragon in Romania, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Love you, Lils."

"Love you too, Teddy!"

_eleven and twenty-two_

_My dearest Teddy-bear,_

_I got sorted into Slytherin! It's fantastic-I've already made friends with Scorpius Malfoy and Lysander Scamander; shh, don't tell Dom or Rose, but they're both super cute and as soon as Dad stops treating me like a little girl, I'd like to snog the pants off of them someday. Both of them, one of them? Who knows what stuff I'll get into._

_Anyways, I dunno whether to be super happy or extremely angry that half of Hogwarts is made up of people who're related to me. At least there's only Dominique here with me in Slytherin; most of them leave us alone, but there are a lot of cool people in this house, unlike Gryffindor, where's everyone's my cousin or my brothers or some kind of family friend. _

_I wish you were here! Why do you have to be so bloody old and be out of Hogwarts already, you arse? Ugh. Oh, well! Before we know it, December will be here and I'll see you again for Christmastime!_

_Oh, and guess what! I got asked out to Hogsmeade by a third year last weekend! He's cute and all, but he's a Hufflepuff, and I'm not quite wanting to deal with that lot (no offense to you, Puffy Teddy, my dear). I was thinking I'd go through all the Ravenclaws first, and then try out my own Slytherin types, _then_ go for the Puffs. I doubt I'll ever date a Gryffindor, though. They're all either gits or share my blood._

_Write me back, Froggie, or I'll be forced to send Aphrodite back to peck you to death! _

_Love you, Ted!_

_Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo and a Chocolate Frog,_

_Lily!_

Lily, Lily, Lily,

I don't know whether Hogwarts should feel lucky or terrified to have you within its walls, my dear. Just don't do any of the things I did in school, like… Well, we'll discuss that stuff when you're older. Speaking of which, language, kid! You're only eleven.

And while we're on the subject of your being ludicrously young, _dates_? Already? Do Harry or Al or James know about these boys? Lils, they better not be arses or I'll be forced to come and murder them. I'm an Auror, I've seen many different ways.

How's all the dramatics? Vic being nice to you? How about Rosie and that Malfoy bloke? Ron's still going on and on about it whenever I see him here. He sounds like a bit of a prat, if you ask me, but Ron's a bit of a prat, too.

Stop hating on the Gryffs! Some of them are pretty bad, but they do it out of idiotic bravery. (; And badgers own all the houses, they just do it in secret!

I miss you, Lily-pad! This letter would go on for ages, but I'll save everything for next week, when I see you again! I'd come over earlier but I'm still on this crappy case - oops, sorry - involving a cursed, disembodied ear and banshees, and it'll take a while.

See you soon, Lily!

Love and Honeydukes,

Teddy

(Snogging? Keep the lips away and the pants _on_!)

_fifteen and twenty-six_

He closes his eyes and lines are crossed everywhere, bridges burned and walls broken. His mind is filled with red hair and freckles and green eyes and laughter.

(He honestly didn't mean to, it was a slip of the tongue and he couldn't control himself.)

Victoire dumps him outside their flat, with the wind biting and him in nothing but yesterday's jeans and his shoes along with a suitcase of miscellaneous things. He swears under his breath at his stupidity and the fact that he'd hurt her, and then Apparates to the Potter household, where Lily sits in the living room, almost as if she'd been expecting him.

"Teddy! What are you doing here? Nice outfit." She sniggers and helps him with his suitcase, and his eyes wander as she turns around to lead him upstairs. She's all long legs and short skirt, hair tied up to reveal the pale nape of her neck. He bites his lip and swears again, his hair turning onyx, scarlet in the light.

"Vic dumped me," he confesses right away as he plops onto his old bed, the mattress squeaking slightly.

Lily gasps and hugs him, flying onto his lap wildly. His heart races and he hates himself (loves her.) "Why? You're wonderful, Teddy! What an idiot, letting you go. I hate her."

"Don't hate her," he says weakly, keeping his arm around her as she lays next to him, still facing him. "It was my fault. _I'm_ the idiot and I think I really hurt her."

She stares at him with big green eyes and beauty and innocence and so _Lily_. "What did you do, Ted?"

He swallows. "Nothing, nothing you need to know. I'd rather keep it secret. I'm just such a git."

"It's okay," she murmurs, and presses her face into his cheek. "_I _still love you."

They fall asleep like that, entangled in each other, as her words ring in his head.

_sixteen and twenty-seven_

It comes simply enough and then avalanches down on top of him, falling into pieces, breaking the dam, suffocating him, her anger enough to kill as she confronts him, backing him against a (metaphorical and real) corner and forcing him to speak. "You _never_ talk to me anymore," she bites, bitterness evident in her eyes, "and you never _ever_ touch and you didn't write at all, all year, and Jesus, Ted, just tell me what I did, alright? Fuck."

_She's all spikes and broken glass and it hurts to look at her, much less feel skin on fire and be burnt knowing you _want_ her so bad and you'll never have her, that's why, _He shouts in his mind. "You didn't do anything," he whispers instead. "I've just been… busy."

"Busy my ass!" she yells back, face turning pink and hair on fire, stamping her foot and stepping closer and closer. "I thought we were _best friends_, Teddy, God!"

"You have to go now," he insists, wanting to cry and kill himself as he slowly leads her to the fireplace, still not touching her or looking her in the eyes.

"I _hate_ you," she says frankly, each and every word carrying its deadly venom that had always been aimed at others, never him. "I _never_ want to see you again," she cries, and disappears with a spin and a poof of green smoke.

Al owls him three days later, informing him that "Lily's gone to Romania and we've no idea when she's coming back" and asking "What did you do, she's angry beyond belief?"

He crumples the letter, burns it in the fireplace where he last saw Lily, and sulks.

_seventeen and twenty-eight_

He comes to her seventeenth birthday party, all slow smiles and the weight of goodbye on his heart. He wears the old puca shell necklace she gave him when he turned twenty around his neck, her scent on his hands.

He spots her in the middle of the dance floor in the middle of the party in the middle of everything he's ever believed him.

(God, she's beautiful.)

He realizes he might just be a little bit a lot drunk as he breaks in between her and one of those dangerous Slytherin boys clumsily, wrapping his arms around her waist, her hands coming to rest on his shoulders purely out of instinct (and the urge to hold him close.) "Haven't seen you in a while," he whispers brokenly into his ear as they sway together.

"I'm sorry for the stuff I said before," she mumbles back, "I missed you, Teddy."

"You haven't got any idea how much I've needed to see you the past year," he chokes out, and doesn't resist when she grabs his wrist and pulls him up the rickety stairs, ignoring Dominique's strange looks and Victoire's glares. They stumble into her room, most of his weight on her, and she pushes him onto the bed and climbs onto his lap like old times.

"I had a good time in Romania," she confesses, his warm breath wafting firewhiskey towards her.

He swallows. "Did you ever think of me while you were there?" he murmurs softly as he leans in.

"Always."

And then she closes the space between him, magic combining and his hair exploding sparks of red and orange and lavender and green. Her arms wrap around him and they lean back into the bed, letting fate control and destroy.

_eighteen and twenty-nine_

"You're _what_?"

Teddy gulps and subtly hides behind Lily. "Harry, I love her, please -"

"_Sectum -"_

"Harry, no!" Ginny snatches his wand away at the last minute, and everyone pauses for a second before deciding together to ignore Teddy's girlish scream. "I knew it would be you two," Ginny gushes giddily at her daughter and godson, and Lily beams at the approval.

"My little _girl_!" Harry roars just then, and takes his wand back, managing to get in a good Jelly Legs Jinx before Ginny does the Bat Bogey Hex and he collapses on the floor, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to escape the attacking bats.

"He'll come 'round," Ginny soothes, "You go on. Come home for dinner and he'll be fine, trust me, I'll work my feminine wiles on him."

"Oh, gross, mum!" Lily growls, and her hand latches onto Teddy as he Apparates them to their flat. "Ugh. I hate old people being romantic. It's disgusting."

"Shut up, your parents are wonderful," Teddy laughs and pulls her close, tugging them both to the couch so she straddles him, her hands cupping his cheeks. "Work your feminine wiles on _me_?"

"Any time, Teddy-bear," Lily laughs, and lips connect, fire sparks.

_nineteen and thirty_

"So I've been getting kind of old," he says one morning as they lie together in bed, lazy and hungover, "and I was kind of wondering if maybe we'd like to get, I dunno, married?"

Lily gets a funny expression on her face like she's happy and mad at the same time. "And do you have a ring prepared?" she asks, her voice slightly giddy as she curls up against him.

"Yeah, yeah, I do," he replies sheepishly, and opens the bedside drawer to reveal a gold band with a single emerald on it, shining like there's no tomorrow.

"Make it official, then," Lily insists, sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest, raising an eyebrow.

Teddy blushes pink and his hair turns orange as he gets down on one knee on the floor, the box on his palm. "Lily Luna Potter, will you marry stupid old me and make me happy forever and ever? Will you be the Lily-pad to my Froggie?"

With a very straight face and a deadly pout, she says calmly, "Nope."

His heart stops.

And then she giggles and leaps onto him, peppering his face with kisses and wrapping her long legs around his waist. "Yes, yes, yes, I'm just kidding, I take it back!" she laughs, kissing his lips a million times. "IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou!"

"You gave me a heart attack, you arsehole," he grumbles as he slips the ring onto her thin finger.

"You should've seen the look on your face," she chuckles as she kisses him once again.

_twenty and thirty-one_

"You fucking prat!" she screams as the Healer demands her to push. "_You_ did this to me!"

"Lils, I'm sorry, I swear, I'm -"

"Fucking _contraception _charms! How could you forget?"

"- so sorry! We were drunk and I -"

"Goddammit, Teddy Lupin, you -"

"- got carried away, why didn't -"

"- deserve this pain, I'm in fucking agony, I -"

"- you do it, then? Look, I'm just sorry, I -"

"- _hate you_, I _hate you so much_, I -"

"- would take all this pain a million times for you, I -"

"- hope you die a painful, slow death, I -"

"- love you!"

"- hate…" She lets out a slow, long wail and the Healer casts some charm that makes the room blurry (or maybe that's tears?) as Lily sobs.

Then the Healer's voice above all the noise and chaos. "Mr. Lupin, congratulations on your new daughter," she announces, smiling and handing over the squealing baby to the other Healers, letting her disappear into the mass of hands and wands.

"I'm so sorry, so sorry," he mumbles over and over as he presses apologetic kisses to the top of Lily's sweaty head.

"It's okay, is she beautiful?" Lily sighs, exhausted, eyes drifting closed.

"So beautiful," Teddy gasps, and hugs his wife close as the Healer brings over the baby again. "Do you know what to name her?"

"Lux," Lily grins, winking. When she spots Teddy's look, she shrugs and says, "It's a Romanian thing. Ask Uncle Charlie 'bout it someday. You pick the middle name."

"Victoria," he laughs, and Lily giggles. "Just imagine Vic's face. She'll be all over Lux in seconds when she finds out, and all will be forgiven, trust me."

"She already forgave us when she started dating Neville," Lily argues, but she scrawls _Lux Victoria Lupin _on the birth certificate anyway.

_twenty-one and thirty-two_

"Lily and Lysander, the second attempt," Lily notes as Lux crawls towards Pierre Scamander and the two of them giggle together at her rainbow-coloured hair.

Dominique laughs. "How delightful. Hopefully they won't end up like you two."

"I don't approve," Teddy growls, wrapping an arm around Lily protectively every time he spots Lysander shoot her a glance. "Lux is too young to date yet, anyway."

"Duh, she's _one_!" Lily laughs, and presses a comforting kiss to his neck. To Dominique: "_Blokes_."

"_Idiots_, all of them."

_twenty-three and thirty-four_

"We have twins now," Lily croaks out weakly, sitting on Teddy's lap in the hospital bed, watching the Healer carry in two tiny baby boys. "In addition to Lux, who's like a reincarnation of me and you and the Marauders and James and every prankster in the family, the bloody girl."

Teddy takes one boy into his arm and hands the other to Lily, both of them cradling the infants sweetly. "This one's going to be Liam, yeah? And Landon. Liam and Landon and Lux and Lily and Teddy Lupin."

Lily smiles and cooes at her boys. "Liam Charles, and Landon Harry Lupin. Sounds wonderful," Lily grins, and kisses the babies on top of their heads before pressing her lips to Teddy's, the fireworks still there after years and years of want and need.

_twenty-five and thirty-six_

"They grow up so fast," Teddy sighs as he wraps his arms around Lily, both of them entangling together on the couch as they watch Lux play with Pierre, Liam and Landon run around (James encouraging them, of course.)

"Can you imagine what you guys would be doing ten years ago?" Roxanne reminds as she sits beside them, leaning against Lily. "You two were crazy."

"Love's crazy," Teddy corrects, and kisses Lily. "Or maybe Roxy's half-right. _You_ did some pretty crazy things, _Lily-pad_. Running off to Romania? _Seducing_ an inebriated Teddy?"

"_Excuse me_, Froggie? Can I remind you of a certain seven years with Vic? And the fact that _you_ had a certain slip of the tongue during -"

"Too much information, guys," Roxanne interrupts, gagging and laughing.

"'Snot my fault I've known this git since birth," Lily grins, snuggling in closer to him. "Love you, Ted."

"Love you, Lils. Always have, always will."

_fin._


End file.
